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This book represents the first comprehensive study of the relationship between Hitler s regime and its musical crown jewel, the Berlin Philharmonic. The Nazi s patronage afforded the Berlin Philharmonic innumerable privileges unique among German cultural institutions. The orchestra accepted these benefits with a combination of gratitude, apprehension and vindication. As the musicians attempted to balance their exceptional status with a degree of artistic and organizational autonomy, tensions between ideological principle, legal jurisdiction, personal taste, and pragmatic regulation revealed profound contradictions at the heart of the Nazi State. In terms of institutional development, the transformations of the Berlin Philharmonic between 1933 and 1945 remain the models for the orchestra s organization to the present day. Drawing together documents from orchestra, State and private archives, this book reflects the experience of a major cultural institution, at once distressingly typical of Germany s Nazi experience, and astonishingly distinct. Primary documents arranged as the book s skeletal structure open up original sources, in many cases for the first time, to further scholarly review, while offering casual readers a unique taste of the troubling, at times shocking, at others even humorous, state of normalcy in this milieu."
This is a groundbreaking study of the prestigious Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics during the Third Reich. Making extensive use of archival material, including some discussed here for the first time, Fritz Trümpi offers new insight into the orchestras’ place in the larger political constellation. Trümpi looks first at the decades preceding National Socialist rule, when the competing orchestras, whose rivalry mirrored a larger rivalry between Berlin and Vienna, were called on to represent “superior” Austro-German music and were integrated into the administrative and social structures of their respective cities—becoming vulnerable to political manipulation in the process. He then turns to the Nazi period, when the orchestras came to play a major role in cultural policies. As he shows, the philharmonics, in their own unique ways, strengthened National Socialist dominance through their showcasing of Germanic culture in the mass media, performances for troops and the general public, and fictional representations in literature and film. Accompanying these propaganda efforts was an increasing politicization of the orchestras, which ranged from the dismissal of Jewish members to the programming of ideologically appropriate repertory—all in the name of racial and cultural purity. Richly documented and refreshingly nuanced, The Political Orchestra is a bold exploration of the ties between music and politics under fascism.
"Offers a clear introduction to a fascinating, yet little known, phenomenon in Nazi Germany, whose very existence will be a surprise to the general public and to historians. Easily blending general history with musicology, the book provides provocative yet compelling analysis of complex issues." ---Michael Meyer, author of The Politics of Music in the Third Reich "Hirsch poses complex questions about Jewish identity and Jewish music, and she situates these against a political background vexed by the impossibility of truly viable responses to such questions. Her thorough archival research is complemented by her extensive use of interviews, which gives voice to those swept up in the Holocaust. A Jewish Orchestra in Nazi Germany is a book filled with the stories of real lives, a collective biography in modern music history that must no longer remain in silence." ---Philip V. Bohlman, author of Jewish Music and Modernity "An engaging and downright gripping history. The project is original, the research is outstanding, and the presentation lucid." ---Karen Painter, author of Symphonic Aspirations: German Music and Politics, 1900-1945 The Jewish Culture League was created in Berlin in June 1933, the only organization in Nazi Germany in which Jews were not only allowed but encouraged to participate in music, both as performers and as audience members. Lily E. Hirsch's A Jewish Orchestra in Nazi Germany is the first book to seriously investigate and parse the complicated questions the existence of this unique organization raised, such as why the Nazis would promote Jewish music when, in the rest of Germany, it was banned. The government's insistence that the League perform only Jewish music also presented the organization's leaders and membership with perplexing conundrums: what exactly is Jewish music? Who qualifies as a Jewish composer? And, if it is true that the Nazis conceived of the League as a propaganda tool, did Jewish participation in its activities amount to collaboration? Lily E. Hirsch is Assistant Professor of Music at Cleveland State University.
The riveting and tension-filled story of a small group of conspirators who plotted relentlessly to obstruct and destroy the Third Reich from within. Behind the front lines of World War II, a clandestine war within a war was being waged in Nazi Germany. As the "Final Solution" unfolded and fascism swept across Europe, a network of German military officers, diplomats, politicians, and a smattering of civilians were doing everything in their power to undermine the Third Reich from the inside: reporting troop movements to the Allies, feeding disinformation to the Nazi high command, arranging risky evacuations of Jewish citizens, and hatching plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler (including the near-miss "Valkyrie" bombing). The Gestapo had a nickname for this loosely organized, shadowy confederation of traitors--the Black Orchestra. Among the key players in the Orchestra were Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an outspoken Lutheran pastor-turned-government agent, and his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi, an attorney working under fellow conspirator Admiral Wilhelm Canaris at the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service. Motivated by moral and patriotic conviction, some with their own Nazi sins to atone for, these men faced constant danger of being exposed and executed. The book's tension, however, comes not just from watching these "white knights" attempt to derail the Third Reich (and sometimes succeeding), but also from what transpires when their treasonous activities are discovered--and their fates hang in the balance as the end of the war rapidly approaches.
In this authoritative study, one of the first to appear in English, Erik Levi explores the ambiguous relationship between music and politics during one of the darkest periods of recent cultural history. Utilising material drawn from contemporary documents, journals and newspapers, he traces the evolution of reactionary musical attitudes which were exploited by the Nazis in the final years of the Weimar Republic, chronicles the mechanisms that were established after 1933 to regiment musical life throughout Germany and the occupied territories, and examines the degree to which the climate of xenophobia, racism and anti-modernism affected the dissemination of music either in the opera house and concert hall, or on the radio and in the media.
It's a real-life spy story, straight from the heart of the Second World War. This triumph of espionage by the Soviet Military Intelligence took the Nazis over two years to crack. Made up of a diverse mixture of Russians, Jews, Poles, and other Europeans (including some Germans), the Red Orchestra played a vital role in the destruction of Nazism--despite the constant fear of discovery. Many were tortured. But, by the time the Germans finished their investigation, the Eastern front was already lost.
In this unforgettable book, distinguished author Anne Nelson shares one of the most shocking and inspiring–and least chronicled–stories of domestic resistance to the Nazi regime. The Rote Kapelle, or Red Orchestra, was the Gestapo’s name for an intrepid band of German artists, intellectuals, and bureaucrats (almost half of them women) who battled treacherous odds to unveil the brutal secrets of their fascist employers and oppressors. Based on years of research, featuring new information, and culled from exclusive interviews, Red Orchestra documents this riveting story through the eyes of Greta Kuckhoff, a German working mother. Fighting for an education in 1920s Berlin but frustrated by her country’s economic instability and academic sexism, Kuckhoff ventured to America, where she immersed herself in jazz, Walt Disney movies, and the first stirrings of the New Deal. When she returned to her homeland, she watched with anguish as it descended into a totalitarian society that relegated her friends to exile and detention, an environment in which political extremism evoked an extreme response. Greta and others in her circle were appalled by Nazi anti-Semitism and took action on many fronts to support their Jewish friends and neighbors. As the war raged and Nazi abuses grew in ferocity and reach, resistance was the only possible avenue for Greta and her compatriots. These included Arvid Harnack–the German friend she met in Wisconsin–who collected anti-Nazi intelligence while working for their Economic Ministry; Arvid’s wife, Mildred, who emigrated to her husband’s native country to become the only American woman executed by Hitler; Harro Schulze-Boysen, the glamorous Luftwaffe intelligence officer who smuggled anti-Nazi information to allies abroad; his wife, Libertas, a social butterfly who coaxed favors from an unsuspecting Göring; John Sieg, a railroad worker from Detroit who publicized Nazi atrocities from a Communist underground printing press; and Greta Kuckhoff’s husband, Adam, a theatrical colleague of Brecht’s who found employment in Goebbels’s propaganda unit in order to undermine the regime. For many members of the Red Orchestra, these audacious acts of courage resulted in their tragic and untimely end. These unsung individuals are portrayed here with startling and sympathetic power. As suspenseful as a thriller, Red Orchestra is a brilliant account of ordinary yet bold citizens who were willing to sacrifice everything to topple the Third Reich.
When the great conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler (1886-1954) decided to remain in Germany under the Third Reich, he was widely and bitterly condemned as a Nazi collaborator who gave cultural and moral credibility to Hitler's regime. Although Furtwangler was exonerated at a de-nazification trial in 1947, his reputation as a Nazi sympathizer continued to darken both his personal and professional life. In this meticulously researched book, Fred K. Prieberg thoroughly investigates the renowned musician's uneasy position in Nazi Germany. Prieberg reveals in fascinating detail that Furtwangler, by persisting with his direction of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Staatsoper, waged a heroic struggle to preserve and nurture the masterpieces of German music. For Furtwangler, the sacred traditions of German art transcended politics. Prieberg argues that Furtwangler resisted efforts by the Third Reich to exploit him as a propaganda tool. As the preeminent conductor in Germany, he used his influence to protect Jewish musicians and staff in his orchestra. He never gave the obligatory Nazi salute at concerts, even when Hitler was present, and avoided performing in occupied countries or for grand Nazi Party occasions. Furtwangler's unquestioning belief in the higher ideals of German art gave him the strength and courage to sustain his quiet yet effective opposition to the Third Reich. Trial of Strength presents convincing evidence that Wilhelm Furtwangler was neither Nazi nor Nazi sympathizer. It also illuminates the perils of artistic collaboration with a totalitarian regime.
Winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year Time magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2007 Newsweek Favorite Books of 2007 A Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2007 In this sweeping and dramatic narrative, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, weaves together the histories of the twentieth century and its music, from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties; from Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies up to the present. Taking readers into the labyrinth of modern style, Ross draws revelatory connections between the century's most influential composers and the wider culture. The Rest Is Noise is an astonishing history of the twentieth century as told through its music.
And Conclusion: "A Rivalry Like That between the Berliners and the Viennese Will Always Exist"--Acknowledgments -- Appendix: Repertoire-Graphs and Commentary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index